Pobalscoil days helped form Dingle and Gaeltacht's class acts
Pobalscoil Chorca Duibhne players Cian Ó Murchú, left, Conchúir Ó Géibheannaigh, centre, and Tadhg de Brún celebrate winning the 2014 Hogan Cup. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach / SPORTSFILE
Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne principal Éamonn Fitzmaurice is immensely proud of the part his past and present pupils have played in Dingle and An Ghaeltacht reaching the Senior and Intermediate All-Ireland finals.
Equally, the former Kerry boss and history teacher, who has piloted the Dingle institution since 2018, says it was the seamless collaboration between the school and all the West Kerry clubs that played a vital part in Pobalscoil's six Munster titles and two All-Irelands.
“There was just great communication and great cooperation and it brought a community together,” Fitzmaurice says.
Away from the glamour of All-Ireland outings, the Finuge native is drawn to the less glamorous days. A Corn Uí Mhuirí quarter-final in typical freezing February weather, replayed due to a black card mishap, instantly comes to mind.
“ I have a memory of the lads sitting inside the dugout at half-time in extra-time, the dugout was half full of water and the lads were shivering and you just kinda said, 'this is barbaric stuff'.
“We still managed to win. They were just brilliant at finding a way to win.”
Finding a way to win has become part of both Dingle and An Ghaeltacht’s journeys to Croke Park. And cold days in Baile Bhúirne helped shape young boys into the resilient men they are now.
So did disappointment. In the 2013 Hogan Cup semi-final, when Pobalscoil were hunting a first Croke Park appearance for the school, they came agonisingly short against St Pat's of Navan, losing 2-7 to 0-11 having trailed by 10 points at one stage.
Despite also being Kerry manager at the time, Fitzmaurice went to great lengths to make that fixture, as his friend and colleague Tommy Griffin remembers. “Kerry were on a training camp in Portugal and Éamonn flew into Knock, rented a car and drove to Nenagh.”
The following year, the partnership of Fitzmaurice and Griffin made good on previous heartache. Trailing St Patrick’s of Maghera 1-4 to 0-2 at half-time in the Hogan Cup final in Croke Park, Fitzmaurice brought Tom O’Sullivan from corner-back to the inside line as Pobalscoil mounted a historic comeback to claim their first Hogan Cup by 1-8 to 1-6. They followed up with another All-Ireland title the year after, with Mark O’Connor and Brian Ó Beaglaoích as co-captains.
Griffin, who will be on the sideline with Dingle in Croke Park on Sunday week said, “Jesus, they were great days. You know there’s something different about school football. I think there’s a kind of innocence and a purity to it, and then to be working with such a talented bunch of footballers that time.”
There is no doubting the link between schoolboy glory days and the current club success. Griffin adds: “There is a link of course, the majority have gone through the school.”
Fitzmaurice points out that only two players in the Dingle and An Ghaeltacht sides didn't attend either the CBS (as it was prior to 2007) or Pobalscoil — Billy O’Connor from Dingle and Aidan Walsh of An Ghaeltacht.
Although a North Kerry man, Fitzmaurice has become an integral figure on the peninsula. From the get-go, he found West Kerry to be a place with passion in abundance.
“ The thing I found from the first day that I started teaching here is there's just an unbelievable passion for football in the area.
“ I wouldn't have experienced that same level of passion anywhere else as to what I found from day one, the minute I landed in Dingle.”
He has proved a more than able conductor of that passion. An Ghaeltacht captain Franz Sauerland, who captained the school to Paul McGirr (U16.5 All Ireland) and the 2018 Corn Uí Mhurí success, lauds his former coach.
“I think I've said it before but he was who I would look up to from a sporting standpoint as he was the first person to make me captain of any team, so I'd always have big respect for him. He's massively helped me on my footballing journey, and of course he's a gentleman as well.”
Sauerland misses this Sunday's final with Glenullin due to a knee injury. But Fitzmaurice and other Pobalscoil managers John Flannery and Ciarán Moran have a proven knack for picking out captains, with previous school skippers Pádraig Ó Sé, Jack O’Sullivan, Éanna Ó Conchúir, Mark O’Connor and Brian Ó Beaglaoích all involved in the upcoming finals. Sauerland and Barry Dan O’Sullivan would also be playing but for injury.
Having played in many iconic stadia from Croke Park to Melbourne’s MCG, Dingle’s Mark O’Connor has not forgotten the importance of close encounters with An Ghaeltacht in Páirc an Ághasaigh and Gallarus and believes the school's success was born out of a healthy underage rivalry between the clubs.
“Even U10s and U12s, the bulk of that group had a serious rivalry all the way up to minor.
“The theme of those Hogan Cups was probably the ability to bring everyone together, along with Lispole, and we were all friends and behind the competition and fierce rivalry we managed to come together.”
Fitzmaurice recalls the intensity and rivalry of lunchtime soccer and basketball games between the current crop. “It was like a World Cup final and you’d be saying, jeez, will you take it handy.”
An Ghaeltacht’s chairperson and former Kerry captain Dara Ó Cinnéide alludes to this rivalry as well. “We need that rivalry, we need that edge to drive us on, but at the same time, it shouldn’t come between us achieving things and raising the bar for each other.”
After their county final success, Ó Cinnéide recalls the phrase that emerged between every pint back west that night. He said, “Giorraíonn sé an Geimhreadh” - it will shorten the winter. Winters in West Kerry can be brutal. Blustery, cold and wet, and the peninsula goes as close to hibernation as humanely possible.
Events such as Féile na Bealtaine, celebrating the arrival of summer, where people “just let themselves go”, as Ó Cinnéide puts it, and Wren’s Day on December 26th are almost feral affairs in West Kerry. Music, madness and magic form an identity for locals to be proud of.
Ó Cinnéide mentions Dingle’s inspirational defender Conor Flannery and his profession. “ He's jumping on a boat and he's fishing lobster pots off the Blasket Islands. That would have to influence your personality.”
An Ghaeltacht’s mascot for this year is the legendary musician Cormac Begley. His vivacious performance of To War has become the anthem for the team. With clips of his performance in Ballyferriter’s Tigh an tSaoraigh after the county final success and the dressing room in Páirc Uí Chaoimh going viral online, the players have found their battle cry.
This thumping tune and Dingle’s pulsating Old Comrades give each outfit a reminder they are part of something bigger.
Not that they need reminding, they know who they are representing. O’Connor says, “ I'm doing my best for every game to look up into the stand before and after the games, just to soak it in because it's the same faces that I've seen since I was U10.”
O'Connor, like every player, will be doing it for those people again next weekend. As will Éanna Ó Conchúir or captain PJ Hand for An Ghaeltacht this Sunday. They know the area they represent is different. The language and culture is so important, this is emphasised at a young age when students attend Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne.
To achieve special recognition as a Gaeltacht school and not just rely on geographical location, you must be on the Scéim Aitheantais Scoileanna Gaeltachta, something Pobalscoil achieved last year. “We're very proud of it, and the kids in the school are very proud of it,” Fitzmaurice said.
It is now hard to believe the school attracted huge controversy around making Irish the primary language back in 2007. Ó Cinnéide recalls the hardship of those times. ”At the time, over a few pints, it was like talking about Donald Trump. You just don't talk about it.
”I was on the board of management at the time, and there was a lot of tears, blood, sweat, and tears at that time in 2006, 2007, 2008. And when they won the Hogan Cup, it just showed what one of the smallest secondary schools in the country could achieve if they pulled together.”
A school of roughly 440 students now has this strong rooted identity, but it has achieved success in its extra-curricular activities too.
Notwithstanding the success of the football teams, Fitzmaurice praises the trailblazing girls 2010 U-16 Basketball Ireland B Schools Cup triumph as a significant moment where the school established itself.
The boys team went on to win the U19C Pinergy Schools Final in 2022, while the likes of Olympic silver medalist Josie Knight and champion jockey Jack Kennedy have also attended the school.
Looking ahead to An Ghaeltacht's and Dingle’s finals, from past students like Paul Geaney to present day pupils like Ned Ryan, they will all look back at their days in Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne as formative years in building the players they are now.
Halls full of memories, and doing it for those people in the stands as O’Connor said. Everyone in the school played an important part in this journey.
Ó Cinnéide and Fitzmaurice’s only advice to players is to live in the moment and not have regrets the Monday after.
As Ó Cinnéide puts it, “Embrace it, laugh about it, enjoy it.”
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